Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Listening Post

Over the years, strangely, Sammy Davis Jr. has become my favorite member of the Rat Pack. I think it has less to do with the fact that he was such a brilliant, fully-formed entertainer than it does with his ability to reach depths of subtlety that his crooning counterparts couldn't dream of. This is a perfect example of what I'm talking about; just listen to the heartbreaking intricacies of his voice on this song, from the album he did with legendary Brazilian guitarist Laurindo Almeida.

And to drag it into the gutter as I am wont to do, Linda Lovelace said in her autobiography that Sammy and his last wife invited Linda and her abusive husband/manager over to see Deep Throat in Sammy's home theater. During the film, she looked over to see Sammy blowing her husband!When he appeared on Oprah, an audience member alluded to that passage in the book and asked whether or not it was true. Sammy wisely played dumb, saying he had not read her book, and did not know to what the woman was referring!

I'm a former network news producer and manager, the media editor at The Daily Banter, and a writer who's been featured in The Huffington Post,The New York Observer and The Village Voice. I'm also the author of a book called Dead Star Twilight and the founder of DXM Media, a firm specializing in television production as well as social media strategies and consulting. On top of all that crap, I'm the co-host of "The Bob & Chez Show" podcast and radio show with Bob Cesca. To find out more about me and/or throw money at me, go here. You can contact me at deusexmalcontent@gmail.com or chez@dxmmedia.com. Follow me on Twitter at @chezpazienza.

A special edition of my full-length memoir, Dead Star Twilight, is now available in e-book format on a pay-what-you-want basis. The downloaded is absolutely free; if you choose to pay for it, just click the "donate" button below the download link. Pay whatever you'd like. Pay nothing. It's your choice.

"As a blogger, Chez Pazienza is filled with outrage, passion and insight -- delivered with a distinctive point of view, a wicked sense of humor, and a two-fisted style of prose. In Dead Star Twilight, he turns all these on himself -- and produces a fierce, funny, disturbing, but ultimately uplifting memoir. This is the book A Million Little Pieces dreamed of being."

"Pazienza could be accused of many things... but he could never be faulted for dumbing us down. His glued-shut prose and bawdy metaphors provide a deeply appreciated, and hilarious, literary diversion."

-- Gelf Magazine, "Insolence Is Bliss," June, 2008

"Snarly, not snarky."

-- Andrew Breitbart

"A delusionally subjective, condescending blog, filled with hostile generalizations and a million exaggerations."

-- Paul Krassner, 60s counter-culture icon

"You're the Antichrist."

-- Mary Elizabeth Williams, Salon.com

"It is truly sad that someone like Mr. Pazienza has a public forum to express his views. In a more civilized time he would, at best, be confined to an institutio­n for the criminally insane or, at the very least, marginaliz­ed from civilized society."